The Federal Government on Thursday disclosed that 100 Local Government Areas in Nigeria were open and yet to be devolved.
The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, who announced this in Abuja, said the 100 Local Government Areas are in 13 of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
Adamu disclosed this in a statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, which noted that the country was able to record seven more LGAs without defecation.
The statement read in part: “The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, is pleased to announce that on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, the National Task Force on Sanitation, a multi-sector platform, ministries, agencies, NGO networks and the media, seven new Local Government Areas are now open drainage free. certified and declared.
“This brings the total number of local government areas with open defections to 100. This is an important milestone.”
Giving a breakdown, the minister said Jigawa was the first free defecation state as all the 27 Local Government Areas in the state were certified free of open defecation.
These include Anambra, which has three Local Government Areas without open defection; Akwa Ibom, one; Bauchi, seven; Benue, nine; Bornu, two; Cross River, six; Kano, 11; Kaduna, five; Katsina, 24; Osun, one; Yobe, one; and Zamfara, three.
The minister recalled that in 2017, the only Local Government Area, Obaniluku, in Cross River State, was free of free defecation.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (Retd.), declared a state of emergency in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector in 2018 and announced the Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign in November 2019.
The campaign was supported by Executive Order 9, and its main goal was to make Nigeria call free by 2025. Since the beginning of the campaign, some measures have been taken to achieve the goal.
Last month, the United Nations applauded the Jigawa State government for becoming the first state in Nigeria to achieve a defect-free state.
He then charged other state governments in Nigeria to emulate Jigawa by working hard to rid their domains of open defecation activities to stop diseases caused by poor sanitation.
The representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, gave the commendation and the charge during a speech at the 2022 World Toilet Summit organized by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in Abuja.
The Federal Government also revealed in November this year that 85 Local Government Areas in Nigeria were free defecation free at the time, with a commitment to increase this number with the objective and mandate of the Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign.
